During a conference call Thursday morning involving ESPN Vice President and Director of News Vince Doria, ESPN The Magazine Editor-in-Chief & ESPN Books Editorial Director Gary Hoenig, and ESPN.com Editor-in-Chief Pat Stiegman a decision was reached in that matter of Bruce Feldman and his participation in assisting Mike Leach’s biography.
In 2009, Mike Leach was terminated from his head football coaching position at Texas Tech due to complaints about Leach’s alleged treatment of the son of ESPN college football analyst Craig James.
However, before Leach’s termination, ESPN The Magazine‘s Bruce Feldman had a principle agreement to help with gathering material for a biography on the head coach. That biography was released in stores this week with the title Swing Your Sword, a reference to Leach’s obsession with pirate memorabilia.
Sports By Brooks has known for the last few months that Feldman’s participation was in direct relation to his approval from ESPN management – which Feldman received.
However, Feldman was told by ESPN executives Doria, Hoenig and Stiegman Thursday that he was being suspended indefinitely for his participation in the Leach book.
The decision seems to be an overreaction on the part of ESPN. To indefinitely suspend a respected writer even though he was given clearance to assist in Leach’s biography – all prior to the dust-up involving the James family. But with this suspension, all eyes will be looking at the worldwide leader in sports and the way it has handled this matter. The fact that they have frozen Feldman out of writing, appearing on sports radio shows, or even using his Twitter account is way extreme. The biography is a first-person account from Mike Leach, not Bruce Feldman. The sports network is just acting out of spite, and its stance on the matter is just another reason why ESPN is the four-letter network that it is.
